At my 38 week appointment Bentley was still breech so we planned to show up six days later for a c section on Tuesday, 9/16, to meet our little guy! I had some signs that I was progressing and I had been having a lot of uncomfortable to painful contractions that week so it was decided that I should take it easy and avoid CrossFit for next few days to avoid going into labor before 9/16.

I told a lot of people that my last day to sleep in, like ever, was going to be Saturday the 13th so I was going to stay in bed super late one last time!! Haha. Well I woke up with stronger contractions around 2am, so I decided to empty my bladder since that sometimes helps them subside. Instead of subsiding, I got hit with a really strong contraction as I laid back down, the kind that has you rolling around and grunting under your breath, "please stop please stopppp." Then it felt like I peed the bed! I hobbled into the bathroom and was a walking leaky faucet that it sunk in that if that was my water then we would be parents very soon. But I was still in denial!

I woke up Ben, "I just peed my pants! But I had just BARELY peed like right before!!!" We had taken a birth basics course so he knew what was going on and jumped up and said I should probably call the on-call doctor from my clinic. The doctor was paged and called me a couple of minutes later and I told her that I thought my water had broken but my contractions had since weakened. But I was breech ...so what now?! I won't ever forget when she told me that if my water had broken and I was indeed breech that we would be operating in a few hours, because holy crap, when you are planning on having a baby on a certain day, you plan accordingly and anything earlier is a complete shock! There were still things to be done and my mom wasn't coming into town for a couple of days. And just like that we might become parents that night!

Dr. C (the on call doc covering for my doc) said we didn't need to run red lights but we did need to head out within ten minutes. Luckily our bags were already packed up and we were pretty close to ready that I quickly rinsed off in the shower (one last hoorah for showering) and I threw on a little makeup. Hey...it was going to be a picture galore day if baby was coming. [Don't hate.] Ben loaded up everything and we put some extra food out for Rykar just in case we wouldn't be back for a minute. (Rykar ended up in puppy daycare for the next five days. He was a happy lil guy.)

We drove to Scottsdale Shea Hospital and I was feeling really good with weaker contractions like I had been having for days. I was waiting for contractions to come back in full force but so far the last big one was the one that broke my water. Ben and I were in a great mood and just in disbelief that baby wanted to come ten days early and what about that huge to-do list we had for our last weekend prior to baby? We probably looked funny walking happily hand in hand into the ER. "Hi, my water broke and the OB doc is expecting me!" I have heard that you can have a lot of volume or a little when your water breaks, and I will tell you I had a LOT and I was practically a waterfall for an hour (including the drive [in our new car haha... I sat on a towel nbd]). Nobody checked to see if my water broke because it was so obvious. Looking back I laugh that I thought somebody would "check" to see if my water broke. Clearly it did. lol

I climbed into a hospital bed and they hooked me up to verify baby was still breech, which he was. They started to monitor my contractions which I guess I wasn't noticing most of. The nurse was like, "can't you feel that!?" and I was kind of like, "well, yeah, kind of I guess." Super weird if you ask me. They started my IV and drew blood, etc., and gave Ben scrubs to wear in the OR. Ben and I just stared at each other and could not believe that we were about to become parents when an hour before we were both asleep in our bed!! What a horrible night to take a Unisom!!!!

Dr. C came in and explained everything that was going to happen and when she asked if we had any questions we were like,

"so, when does this all actually happen?"

"They didn't tell you? at 4:00am."

It was currently 3:55 thus we started in on a text/call family frenzy but the only two who responded before the baby actually came were our dads. :P My poor mom's phone app didn't work and my ringing never went through while she slept.

I walked myself into to the OR and I remember it was so freezing in there, plus my nerves were going bonkers on me that I was trembling and getting really scared. At this point Ben and I had separated for a minute so that really didn't help. I always banked on the pain of intense contractions to conceal the thoughts and pain of the epidural (or spinal, or whatever it is called for the C section), but there I was facing the fact that I was going to feel it and it was going to happen in just a second. After 10 months there was no more pushing that epidural thought out of my mind, but in all honesty it wasn't even that bad! The anesthesiologist numbed it and that stung just a little bit but probably less than the giant IV tube going into my arm earlier. I never felt the actual epidural needle, but I will say it was the weirdest feeling once it started to work. It was weird and I was not a fan!! I would send signals down to my feet to try to move them because I was all terrified that it wouldn't be strong enough, but it definitely was! My feet wouldn't move and it was a comforting but concerning feeling. Plus I felt like I was sprawled out for the world the see my lower half, but in reality that probably only lasted a second before they had me covered up. It just felt like I was chilly and exposed.

I had heard all about side effects of a spinal/epidural and the two that I had pretty bad were trembling/shivers and itching. The itching didn't hit right away, but it did last about 36 hours. The trembling was terrible and I just sat there shaking uncontrollably on the operating table. They had Ben come in by this time and he held my hand and leaned down and kept telling me what a great job I was doing and that our little guy would be here so soon and it would all be worth it. I didn't say much but just sat and mumbled how much I loved Ben and appreciated him. He was a real cheerleader and I don't know how women can make it through birth/ c sections if the significant other isn't allowed to come in. Gosh I love him.

Dr. C said, "This guy isn't going to be very big. Maybe 6 pounds 6 ounces or so!" We'll see. During the surgery I didn't feel a thing but some pressure, but not really a lot of that. I knew what was going on down there and at one point my body was being rocked back and forth a little bit and that was a little creepy. But the doctor assured me all was going perfectly on the other side of the curtain. Only a few minutes went by before the doctor said that the baby was coming and Ben could stand up and take some pictures as she pulled him out!! What a surreal experience, but the most surreal moment of the entire experience was hearing him for the first time with his high pitched cry. Being our first lil one, you know you're carrying a baby and you see him on the ultra sound time and time again, but until you hear that cry it just isn't real. I think that's the point that I remember the anesthesiologist shooting me full of morphine and sending me into slight lala land. Sometime or other they also put warm blankets on me to help me try to relax. It was such a blur but not a blur at all at the same time.

Ben went over and took pictures and I was able to see Bentley at the table as he was being measured and looked at by the NICU nurses. I thought he would be about 7 pounds based on nothing but how much more cramped I felt after he measured 6 pounds 1 ounce a few weeks prior, but he measured in at 6 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches. (He later measured nearly an inch less at the pediatrician's office, but meh.) He was a healthy champ with a 9 Apgar score and he didn't require any help from the NICU nurses which was such a relief, especially considering he came out via C section. They wrapped him up and gave him to Ben and he brought him to my side. I wasn't feeling like I could securely hold him so I stroked his head and just stared at him and Ben. Holy crap baby, we're parents. I never imagined something so cute, and I never knew I could love him so much (even at 4am when my sleep count is up to 30 minutes).

I love, love, love him! He is ours forever and it makes me a blubbering mess.

Here is a video taken on our way to the hospital:

Tomorrow (22nd) is my actual due date which is really weird because it feels like he has been with us forever. Love him so much.

8 comments:

Oh my goodness, he is so beautiful! I'm glad everything went well for you. We are so happy for you both and I'm so glad you posted his birth story. I'll be in your shoes in a few months and even after having 3, it still doesn't feel real! :)

Awwww he is so cute, just showed Zoe the picture and told her, this could be a potential boyfriend for her! She fell asleep :) We were also totally in denial when we drove to the hospital, you just can't imagine a life with a baby! So glad to hear all went well and you are feeling good!